somvssósWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: som is a noun, sós is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“som” is a noun and “sós” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,134
“som” frequency rank
#16,887
“sós” frequency rank
18021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature som sós
Definition onda longitudinal transmitida pela matéria e que podemos ouvir (geralmente entre 20Hz e 20kHz): plural de só

Letter map: som vs sós

Shared letters muted; letters that set som and sós apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
som
3 ch
sós

Part-of-speech tell for som / sós

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: som is anoun and sósanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

som is recorded at frequency rank #1,134, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsõ/. sós is at rank #16,887, tagged as anadj.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 18021, this pair ranks #53,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of som vs sós

Shared letters: s. Private to "som": mo. Private to "sós": ó.

"som" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sós" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "som" and "sós" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "som" is a noun and "sós" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "som" or "sós"?
"som" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,134 in our Portuguese list, against #16,887 for "sós". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "som" and "sós". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "som" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sós" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "som" and "sós" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs sós". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list